Friday, July 02, 2010

The BBC: why subsidise our enemy?

It is pretty obvious the BBC are going to be hostile during the Papal visit, already Peter Tatchell is going to do an "investigation" into the Church. Now the BBC are planning a drama called The Pope on Trial according to The Telegraph.
Isn't it about time someone in the Church in this country just said "Enough, let's not pay the license fees". Why should Catholics pay for public service broadcasting that does very little other than disparage the Catholic Church. Why subsidise our enemies? It is about time the Church joined the increasing number of politicians who are debating whether or not we need the BBC.

Mark Thompson, the BBC director-general, may be a devout Catholic, but the corporation is doing little to make Pope Benedict XVI feel welcome ahead of his first state visit to England and Scotland in September.
Mandrake can disclose that the BBC is planning a 90-minute drama which will take as its premise what would happen if the Pope were to go on trial for covering up sex abuse perpetrated by priests.

A BBC spokesman denied any knowledge of the project, but Paul Gilbert, who works in the corporation's drama department, admitted to me that he had for the past two weeks been involved with the "development" of a project with the working title of The Pope on Trial. He said it was "too early" to talk about casting or on what channel it was envisaged the drama would be broadcast. The Pope, who has pledged to rid his church of "filth", has already been subjected to an investigation by the Radio 4 programme The Report into allegations that he covered up abuse. The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, believes sections of the BBC are pursuing an anti-Catholic agenda. He had earlier been irked when the BBC had attempted to broadcast Popetown, a cartoon which mocked Pope John Paul II.

The license fee is extreme - almost as much as the tax disk for keeping your car on the road - at least when you get in your car you know there's a road to drive on, but finding something, if not edifying, at least entertaining is like panning for gold at a local waterworks outlet. It's a good thing the Pope refused to interview with BBC and Radio 4 as clearly it would have been accepting the invitation from the proverbial spider. Since the new government is pledging to send less people to prison maybe it would be safe to boycott and since the majority of people disdain the tv licence if Catholics could started a campaign to boycott perhaps the anti-catholic rhetoric would die down.

Well, I'm going to wait until the visit (want to watch it!) and see if this stuff is as bad as it sounds. If so, I'll get rid of the telly and stop paying the licence fee. Maybe I'll send the TV set to the Director-General – great if he had lorry loads arriving!

Have just – today – had a notice through the door saying that the BBC want to do a documentary about my street. So now the dilemma is - do I participate? Maybe they'll film during the papal visit, when my enormous flag will be hanging out of the window!

Just about all the content of the BBC has gone so far down the pan that one must suspect that there is a deliberate plot,they are either angling for a rise in the Licence fee or they want to flog it off.

The BBC has been taken over by ne'erdowell Activists,we send our Soldiers across the World to fight our so-called enemies to protect our freedoms but the REAL ENEMY is here and in positions of power.

Might the constant harrying be in part because the Catholic Church is seen consistently to "roll over" when attacked and is, therefore, considered an easy target?

Yes, that's bullying all right. But that's the way bullies are.

The perception of the Church by most journalists is basically of the Dan Brown variety. Who is telling them different? Name one Catholic spokesperson who comes out fighting. A little of Our Lord in the Temple wouldn't go amiss.

As for the BBC DG being a "devout Catholic", it's a journalistic cliché. Catholics are always reported as devout, even when they manifestly aren't.

Frankly, the effrontery of the man asking the Pope to do Thought for the Day, whilst knowing what else was on the boil, is breathtaking.

Michael Petek suggests writing to the BBC.I wrote to the BBC Catholic Director General, Mark Thompson, in April to complain about the biased coverage of matters concerning the Catholic Church. I received a reply from the BBC Complaints department refuting my accusations. I was told that the coverage of any story "is a judgement call rather an exact science" and "some people may disagree with them."The letter went on: "The BBC is committed to honest, unbiased reporting and is determined to remain free from influence by outside parties, whether political or lobbyist.....Impartiality forms the cornerstone of BBC News and Current affairs....The BBC does not seek to denigrate any view, nor to promote any view. It seeks rather to identify all significant views, and to test them rigorously and fairly on behalf of the audience."

The letter said all the right things one would expect from an independent broadcaster of integrity. Why did I not believe a single word of it? If the Corporation really is committed to honest, unbiased reporting then it will have to undertake a massive clean out among its news staff. The only way that a change 'may' come about is if the BBC were inundated with letters of complaint. You can be sure that if they do not receive letters then they will not change.

"History, in fact, is not alone in the hands of dark powers, chance or human choices. Over the unleashing of evil energies, the vehement irruption of Satan, and the emergence of so many scourges and evils, the Lord rises, supreme arbiter of historical events. He leads history wisely towards the dawn of the new heavens and the new earth, sung in the final part of the book under the image of the new Jerusalem (cf. Revelation 21-22)." Benedict XVI***God will defend her, the Holy Church, against all heresy and attacks, internal or external... The Bride will suffer as the Bridegroom had suffered, but in time she will rise in Glory to meet the Bridegroom and the veil shall be lifted from time and space to reveal Eternity. Maranatha... Salvation History marches on... We look to the East, We look to Eternity...

7. Freedom from having to pay out your own money to support all of the points in No. 6 above.

Be warned however - anyone who bucks the trend will be hounded by the TV Licence Authority 'Enforcement Team' who just cannot believe that someone would not have a TV.

To these people one's word of honour is not good enough.

If you then defend the right of the English to refuse entry to outside agencies in order to defend the rights of family privacy you will certainly be harassed by these people sending threatening red letters demanding entry into your home to search for a TV.

Indeed they will also come to your home and try and get in. Stand up to them with polite firmness and reasoned argument and you can eventually win a 2 year reprieve from such interference.

A few people have done prison time for not paying fee or the later £1000 (highest area of criminal activity for women apparently is non payment of the fee!):http://www.spiderbomb.com/tv/womenprison.html

Here's a facebook page for a boycott but doesn't look like anyone visits it:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9646713055

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi-legal-framework-AB16/A TV Licence is a legal permission to install or use television receiving equipment (e.g. TVs, computers, mobile phones, games consoles, digital boxes and DVD/VHS recorders) to watch or record television programmes, as they are being shown on TV. This applies regardless of which television channels a person receives or how those channels are received.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ103/If you use the BBC iPlayer to watch BBC programmes after they have been broadcast either to download or via streaming on demand then you will not need a TV Licence.

ie: BASICALLY, DONT WATCH OR RECORD ANYTHING FROM A LIVE BROADCAST (using ANY device): THEN YOU'RE CLEAR, AND BY NOT HAVING A LICENSE, YOU'RE ACTIVELY CONTRIBUTING TO CHRIST'S MISSION ON EARTH!

FatherSonia is right. Even if you had a Secam tv that could receive only French programmes you would have to get a UK licence. But at least the coverage of his visit to France was good.It was also good, a few years back, to see JP II in his sermon in Lourdes repeating that life should be respected from conception till its natural end. The congregation kept interrupting with applause before he finished so he restarted his sentence. That way he showed that he knew what he was saying.Any chance of the same coverage from the BBC?

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna

Pray for Francis our Pope, and for the Church of God

My Parish's Website

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